scald
verb · noun
Simple meaning
Burn with a hot liquid or steam.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
skawldIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈskɔld
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Burn with a hot liquid or steam
“She scalded her hands when she turned on the faucet and hot water came out.”
cooking
Heat to the boiling point
cooking
To heat almost to boiling.
noun
The act of burning with steam or hot water
A burn cause by hot liquid or steam
A paste, made by mixing flour with hot or boiling water (causing starches in it to gelatinize and hold more water) and allowing that mixture to sit and cool, which is added to bread dough to produce a softer bread that takes longer to stale.
A Nordic poet of the Viking Age.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Burn with a hot liquid or steam
Used this way, scald is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“She scalded her hands when she turned on the faucet and hot water came out.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use scald
- “She scalded her hands when she turned on the faucet and hot water came out.”verb
- “Scald tomatoes so that they can be peeled.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Milk heated almost to boiling.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.